I can't believe what I just saw on TV

[MiniMama]

(emotionally charged post coming up) I"m sitting here watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel. They are following a guy around who gets rid of cockroaches. The camera crew went into a trailer home that had THOUSANDS of roaches everywhere - in the cupboards, on the dishes, in the clothes pile, you name it. Every electronic piece was covered in roach droppings. And in the middle of it all... this pathetic looking African Grey. Isn't there a law somewhere that says if you are too damn poor and lazy too take care of an infestation problem that you shouldn't have an exotic pet???? I have zero tolerance for these type of people. There were roaches climbing all over that bird's cage. And in the middle of it all... the two queens of the pigsty, smiling away at their beloved roach problem that had clearly been there for YEARS. There were also stacks of bird cages outside with blue tarp over them. I really hope there weren't more birds in that craphole. Just unbelievable.

[Matt]

You are right. It really is disheartening to see things like that. I used to have a cousin whose bird was in a similiar situation many years ago. We finally convinced him to give up the bird. We took the bird, was a Mitred Conure and placed him in the pet shop where I worked as a kid. The bird loved all the attention, good food and having other birds around. The only bad thing was he often called customers "son of a b_ _ _ _!" which he previous owners had taught him.

[MiniMama]

Matt,,, that seems like a line out of a comedy. I'm picturing a sweet, little old lady walking up to the bird and saying 'oh, what a sweet little birdie! Hello sweet little birdie!'

Conure response...

[greencinacheeks]

i watched that too!!!! that exactly what i thought!!!! it just soo sad...


Matt.....thats soo funny....i work at a petstore and one of the previously owned birds says shut the **** up!!!!

~N

[Tishrei]

That story gave me the creepy crawlies and also reminded me of a story from long ago. My ex husband is a police officer with the city of Los Angeles. When we were married, he came home one day and wouldn't talk to me but headed straight for the shower. After spending an inordinate amount of time in the shower, I finally went in there to ask him what was wrong. Here's the story he told me.

They got a call at the school because a 6 year old had a butcher knife in his pants and wanted to stab a kid who was mean to him. So they took the child into protective custody and then went to his home. Here's what they found at the home. It was a single mother with 5 kids with 5 different fathers and she collected welfare. They ended removing all the kids. But when they went into the house, there were cockroaches all over the place, climbing up the wall, etc. He said he got dizzy looking at the cockroaches because it looked like the wall was moving. The bathroom was hideous. The toilet had stopped up so they were using the tub which was filled with their excretment. There was also a dog and a bird that they removed (don't remember what kind of a bird now, it was so many years ago).

The place was so hideous with filth that it was deemed unliveable even for the animals.

Humans can be such disgusting creatures it defies imagination.

[MiniMama]

oh your poor husband, I"m sure he was affected by that. I used to work in the budgeting dept for a city in Colorado. One time we caught wind from the police department that they just removed, from a 800 square foot house (!!!) 113 cats. most had to be put down due to illnesses passed along in the environment. Isn't this 1 cat for every 8 square feet? I've heard that how you keep your house is a direct result of your mental state (but for us, it's how we keep the birdroom!!!)

[Lisa B]

I saw that as well a while ago....I felt very sorry for the grey....

[MiniMama]

**UPDATE** I just sent an email to the Discovery Channel viewer relations, asking what steps were taken for this bird. If anyone else if up for it, might be a good idea to let them know that people are watching this and are not pleased. We'll see what they say.

[Abyssinian1]

Ewww.

I remember living in an apartment complex near Buckley & Mississippi (in Aurora, just south of the Air Force Base - not a terrible neighborhood, but definitely not an upscale section of town) in a second story unit. One day I opened the cupboard and a roach scuttled out. I killed it (after giving off loud girly screams), called the maintenance guy for the complex and had him come out on a Sunday to treat my kitchen with insecticide. I still found roaches (1 a week) however, no matter how many I killed, and no matter how much Raid I prayed and no matter how many times I called the manager. I threatened legal action if they didn't fix the problem. They told me they were doing all they could and that I needed to keep my kitchen cleaner - if there was no food to be had they wouln't be there. Finally, after the folks directly below me left the complex, the manager discovered that the roach infestation was coming from the vacated apartment, not my unit. After seeing Terminex show up with the canisters (many, many canisters), I went to the office and asked the manager on duty about it. Turns out he was the one to initially open up the apartment and the look on his face spoke volumes.

I received an apology. Fortunately, I decided to move to a much better location shortly after that.

Roaches are hard to kill - there is a reason they have survived for millions and millions of years. They are tough as nails, nigh indestructable and are becoming resistant to everything we throw at them. One of these days I expect them to start growing Kevlar carapaces and helmets. I hope that the guy doing the exterminating duty called animal welfare on behalf of that poor grey. I mean, if there was going to insecticide sprayed about the apartment, why the heck was the bird not removed in the first place, considering their reactions to chemicals, let alone the roaches?

[whitewing]

Originally Posted by MiniMama

**UPDATE** I just sent an email to the Discovery Channel viewer relations, asking what steps were taken for this bird. If anyone else if up for it, might be a good idea to let them know that people are watching this and are not pleased. We'll see what they say.

As long as the bird had food and water there is not much that can be done.

I am not in favor of nazis telling us exactly how we should be keeping our animals. As long as they are healthy and happy then the autorities should stay out of it.

I'm not saying those people weren't disgusting, but I don't think it's right to attack them and take their pet, either. You have to accept that not everyone is going to be an ideal pet owner. That's just the way the world (and the law) works.

I for one am not going to waste my time trying to get the bird yanked from its loving owners just because they had a bug infestation....